Silver Lining

Chapter 10: Potions and Detentions

Chapter 10: Potions and Detentions

“Oh my gosh! I can't believe that NEWTS are tomorrow! What if I fail, I'll have to stay at Hogwarts and study for another year,” Hermione was walking back and forth her dormitory common room, a book in her hands.

“Will you just rest for a while. When you've gone and graduated from Hogwarts, I'll have stay for another year.”

“You won't fail Harry. As long as you try your best of course.”

“That's encouraging,” Harry said huffily.

“Well, it is true.” Hermione checked her watch, there was only three minutes until Arithmancy. “ I have to go to Arithmancy. Bye Harry, see you in Potions.”

Hermione ran along the corridor to Arithmancy. She made it just in time.

“Hello class! You're NEWTS will be tomorrow, and Arithmancy is one of the hardest subjects. Many people were unable to pass the OWLS, but I'm sure you will all do very good in your NEWTS. Seeing that there is no point starting a new topic just before the NEWTS, we shall revise the work Professor Vector and myself did with you this year.”

Elaine is such a good teacher! Hermione thought as she opened her book.

(*)

“Ron , you're doing it wrong again. You're supposed to add wormwood, not nutwood. Honestly, you're going to fail the Potions exam if you do this during the exam. This is the most important potion in the Potions exam, and the Potions exam is very important, especially if you want to be an auror.”

“Okay, okay! It's just a wrong ingredient.”

“It's not just a wrong ingredient. If you put in one wrong ingredient, you're Cure for Pimples, will actually do the opposite effect.”

“Which is....”

“You get more pimples,” Hermione said simply.

“Uh oh. Um, I already put in some nutwood before you stopped me. Didn't Malfoy say that she was going to drink the potion afterwards to test if we've done them correctly?” 

“And she also said that we should all do it correctly, seeing we were able to pass the OWLS. And if we don't do it correctly, we lose twenty house points, and if we do it correctly, we get twenty house points,” said Harry, who made the same mistake as Ron, but he put in munnwood. 

“Great, we're dead.”

“What are we going to do?” Harry groaned.

“You know, it's lucky, you apologised Harry, because, I know what to do to fix up your problem.”

(*)

“Potter, your turn now. Bring a sample up to me, and I'll drink it.”

Harry ladled some potion into a flask, Hermione wished him good luck (Ron was too nervous to say anything,  and Harry took it up to Narcissa Malfoy. She took it from him, and smirked at him. Harry tried not to look at her smirking face. It nerved him a lot but he couldn't help not looking at her drinking down the potion.

When Narcissa drank the last drop of the potion, Harry and everyone else in the room stared attentively at her face. Slowly, the pimples Narcissa Malfoy conjured on her face, started popping, no blood came out, and the scars faded. The Gryffindors whooped, as the Slytherins groaned.

“Weasley, bring yours up now.” 

As Ron put his sample into the flask, Narcissa conjured up new pimples on her face. Ron slowly walked to the front of the room, and handed Narcissa his sample. Once again, everyone stared at her face once she finished the potion. The popping noises once more filled the room, which meant Ron had succeeded too.The Gryffindors applauded as Ron sat down. The Slytherins merely scowled at him. Other students went up one by one. When Narcissa Malfoy drank Neville's potion, her face grew more pimples than ever.